#nhiyells

Preface: I'm American, so this blog post is involuntarily centered around the US variant of these issues--though I am trying my best to make it generally useful and informational to internet users as a whole.

What is currently happening - The current state of internet censorship

The order of events goes something like this:

Collective Shout [their about page] [public opinion on them] contacts payment processors (like Visa and Mastercard) and claims that they are supporting terrible things by being the payment processors for game platforms that host inappropriate games. (Collective shout is specifically vague about what counts as inappropriate.)

Late July, Steam and other game distribution services (such as itch.io) are pressured by payment processors into pulling NSFW games from their platforms. Steam and Itch.io blame the removal of these games on Mastercard and Visa pressuring them into it. [article on the topic] Mastercard makes a brief statement completely denying the claims. [Mastercard statement]

Late July, the UK's Online Safety Act goes into effect. This act is proposed as a means to protect children from seeing harmful content online[gov.uk page explaining the act], though functionally requires government ID from all internet users to use any of the internet. A demonstration of this is that ID is now required to use Spotify and Wikipedia in the UK, because according to this law, these platforms have the potential to harm children. (Australia has been floating around similar ideas in the past year IIRC)

The US and several other countries are now attempting to follow in these footsteps, and platforms like YouTube are rolling out age verification features. The US specifically is reattempting to pass the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), and push several new internet censorship acts

TLDR: Steam and Itch.io are being forced to delist NSFW games, and laws are being rolled out to force people to use government ID to prove they are adults while on the internet

Why everyone is affected (including you)

If the TLDR of the previous section wasn't clear enough, you are being monitored, and will be vulnerable to having your ID in a dataleak.

If you have to use your ID to verify your age, every platform you verify yourself on now has your government ID. YouTube specifically has conflicting statements regarding how long they hold your ID and the methods you are able to use to verify yourself.

Data leaks/data breaches are often and frequent--as of June there was a 16 billion password data leak. [Forbes article on the matter]

If there is a data leak and your ID is among the leaked information, you cannot change your birthday, you cannot change your face, you cannot easily change your address.

This isn't even touching on the fact that your government ID would then be connected to your internet use--big corporations and your government now know what podcasts you listen to, what videos you watch, what you yell into the internet void. You are no longer anonymous

TLDR: Your ID could be stolen if you share it, and you are no longer anonymous online.

What is currently happening - How people are fighting back

4chan users have been mass calling Mastercard and Visa with complaints against their pressuring Steam and Itch.io--among other things, there are hacktivist things going on that I'm not up to date about. Here's a link to a thread talking about Visa and Mastercard blocking purchases of NSFW games and how to report it for fraud. [It is a 4chan thread however]

People are using videogames to get around the facial recognition, using characters instead of their own faces to get around the age verification. [PCGamer article on it] I do not know if there are legal consequences to it, and recommend you self assess if you want to take that risk. (VPNs are also in use to prevent even being asked your age in the first place.)

A petition has been made to repeal the UK's Online Safety Act, and has passed half a million signatures [article about it] [the petition, which can still be signed]

People are calling and emailing their local senate and representatives to urge them to vote against and repeal these acts [Contact UK Parliment] [Contact your local representative (USA)]

People are changing their profile pictures to clippy over on YouTube [why clippy] [what the clippies do next], and making lots of noise on platform against these new updates CerosTV and Deep Humor specifically have been making frequent uploads recently discussing and combating the new age verification updates, as well as talking in more depth on this than I ever could [CerosTV] [Deep Humor]

I personally encourage spreading the word, contacting local government, and contacting companies that are involved in this.

TLDR: People are calling up local government and calling up all these companies to say their word against these laws and policies. People are also finding a variety of workarounds in the UK.

Alternatives and what you can do

Alternatives to YouTube - Patreon (paid), Nebula (paid), Glomble (free, donation run and currently small scale), Odysee (free and paid versions),

Alternatives to most anything - Analog media and piracy, as well as archives. The Internet Archive can be used to watch old shows and videos alongside everything else it archives such as webnovels and websites that no longer run. Analog media is generally important as well--if you can't hold it, you don't own it.

Call your local government [USA] [UK]

Research. KOSA isn't the only act the US is trying to pass regarding internet use, and surely the UK and US aren't the only countries going through this--look at what's going on where you live [Wikipedia article on internet censorship] [Wikipedia article on internet censorship in the US]

Spread the word, boost attention to these issues, tell your friends and family that the internet is being censored, keep the momentum going. Do research on your own as to why any censorship in the first place is bad--sure, delete the game that features murder, but why draw the line at that when you can delete all the games that feature it? Including the ones that specifically say, "Murder is bad, we are depicting it in a light that says it bad"

Review bomb platforms that are rolling out these features and boycott them until they're dealt with. All these platforms are worth less than one star if they want a picture of my drivers license, in my opinion.

TLDR: Research. Research research research. This and spreading the word, on top of calling up the government to say that you don't like these laws.

Conclusion

Remember when that youtuber got firebombed by the Australian government? The cartel? Both? Because both are equally viable options? Yes/No? Doesn't matter, [who firebombed friendlyjordies video] and [his channel]. He still makes videos and a lot of his recent ones are on the current state of politics in general.

Here is a collection of useful resources: [Fighting payment processors] [Terrible things Collective Shout has done] [Full copy of the US constitution] [Purchase 'banned' books as protest] [metaphor for why censoring ao3 is bad] [If you think you won't be affected, you will be] [Talk about the time TikTok was banned and Rednote was flooded with Americans(commentary on propaganda)] [anti youtube ai age verification petition] [dangerous rise of anti intellectualism] [help the YouTube boycott] [help libraries reddit thread] [help libraries, American org] [help libraries, different American org] [authors against book bans]

Censorship is very real, please do your part to keep the internet free, because as small as you think your voice is, it's a part of the tidal wave made up by the millions of us that use the internet.

Order of operations:

The lineup -> Explaining the songs one by one -> Bonus Janka analysis -> Bonus fandom commentary -> Closing thoughts

Here's the lineup:

HEAVY LOVE - Odetari

Creep - Richard Cheese (cover)

Dead n Gone - Luci4

BRAINS OUT - Odetari

Calm Me Down - Mother Mother

Cannibal - Tally Hall

Driving with My Darling - AND ONE

Sleep Talking - Indigo De Souza

Killing Eve - Benét

HEAVY LOVE - Odetari

This song doesn't particularly have any lyrics that called out to me with a "put me in the Janka playlist" type of cry, but the general aura of the song feels very Janka coded. I do admit though, that the [Put your weight up on me, heavy love] line was especially Janka coded in particular. It feels, as the line and title implies, heavy, and I think their feelings being so unbearably weighty upon their shoulders is an accurate assignment.

Creep - Richard Cheese cover

The lyrics are so Janka. Holy shit. [I wish I was special / You're so fucking special] That's so Zanka bugging about Jabber. [I don't care if it hurts / I wanna have control / I want a perfect body / I want a perfect soul] This is literally so Janka Zanka forreal. And about that elephant in the room--the choice to use the Richard Cheese cover. I just think its a lot more visceral to hear [I don't care if it hurts] in an upbeat tone to a jazzy pop instrumental.

Dead n Gone - Luci4

If you don't hear the line [If I died, dead and gone, would you miss me?] and don't think of Janka being fucked up about each other. That's okay. But you aren't Janka pilled enough. Or maybe you have a different interpretation than I do. Also this line: [All I taste is blood and my tears when you kiss me] That's just Janka. That's how they are about each other. We are so back Janka Nation. (I also made a Janka edit to this song!! It's on my tiktok!! [LINK HERE])

BRAINS OUT - Odetari

[Before I blow my brains out / I'ma fuck your brains out / I-I-I'ma kiss you on the mouth / Then I'll blow my brains out] Need I say more. These guys would make great toxic yuri let me tell you. They hurt each other and are freaks about it. That's this song.

Calm Me Down - Mother Mother

These lyrics have that special masochist flavor that Jabber likes to bring to the table [Use your teeth and your mouth / Cut in deep to pull it out / Oh no, I'm aroused now, I'm aroused] There's also these lines [Use your body / Use it to put me to sleep] that make me think of Janka, somehow moreso than the previously quoted lines, despite arguably those lines matching more than these. I do also take the meanings of songs into account. That's something of note for this and all the songs on this playlist.

Cannibal - Tally Hall

"Cannibal is a song about a man who is willingly participating in a relationship with a woman that he knows is hurting him, either physically or mentally." I agree with that analysis of Cannibal by Tally Hall and think that it works well with Janka. [She calls it a game / But the wound that she leaves is unmistakable] These lines are so Janka. They hurt each other they hurt each other. They are A Way about each other, and I cannot pass up involving cannibalism metaphors when I have the chance.

Driving with My Darling - AND ONE

Do we happen to recall the animation trend where one of them is driving and the other is tied by rope to the car and being dragged along? Because I do, and someone needs to animate Janka to it Right Now. Thats essentially the whole reason I included this song, but there is some legitimacy through the lyrics as well. [Driving with my darling / Faster than I should / Driving with my darling / Forever if we could] There's an element of danger and thrill in the lyrics, which, if we haven't gathered by now, is quite Janka.

Sleep Talking - Indigo De Souza

Hear me out now: [I'll break your bones / With all the love I carry / Keep you close / And one day, we'll get married] That's so Janka. They're fucked up about each other but they can be soft at the same time. That's something I don't see often enough in fandom--that delicate balance of codependency and obsession and harm that screams the "I depend on you" image. Someone draw Janka as "I depend on you" image please. Yes but. Anyways, it's always an urgent go go go pace and intensity, which while I enjoy it, fails to capture the utter gem that is the insanity of mutual and intimate quiet dependency and obsession.

Killing Eve - Benét

[They say, "Three times a charm"] Hey now. They've fought twice. Do you see where I'm going with this. And. AND. [You're killing me / Don't you see that you're the winner of the game?] That is so Janka, I just think it's a perfect end to the playlist.

Janka Analysis Wohoo

Janka is so goated. They canonically have a budding sadomasochist dynamic going on, what with Jabber being a masochist and calling Zanka a sadist at one point. During their second fight, as Jabber starts to express a loss of interest, he's pulled back not by Zanka beating on him some more, but the fact that he notices Zanka is having fun in his little hallucination world where we as an audience know that Zanka thinks he's fighting Jabber. They match each others freak so bad. (Also Jabber is the masochist and Zanka is the sadist (reluctant or no, I don’t care). It’s inaccurate to their characters to have it the other way around, but I’m not opposed to sadomasochist x sadomasochist.--That's actually the eventual direction I realistically see Janka headed if we stick to canon as close as possible.)

Fandom commentary (+little bit of headcanons)

You call Jabber an evil lightskin cause that’s all you think he is, I call Jabber an evil lightskin because I know What He Is. Maybe not you who’s reading this, but the illiterate fans especially have me bugging about it. Tell me why I sent a clip to one of my friend groups and was met with “why does the white man have dreads?” I don’t know man. Maybe that’s a context clue to imply he’s Not White. I don’t know. (Clawing at my skin rn.) That same person tried to hit me with the “Japan isn’t all sparkles like everyone is making it out to be,” speech like I was the one who was making that claim. The internet is free man. I can hook you guys up with critical thinking tutorials. Besides that though, there’s a lot of microaggressions going on with some of these fans, mind you, not all of the fandom, but I need that to be shut down asap before it actually does become a problem. What I mean about the microagression headcanons though, for anyone who doesn’t know what I mean, is the racist headcanons. Tell me, good squire, why /is it/, that you think Jabber is a drug addict? And would be an awful student? Surely not racism. Surely not. (It is.) Also Jabber is getting hit with the “drawn with white people skin” beam but I think that’s just. Inevitable atp. I don’t like it but I personally just don’t interact with those types of artists. Beyond Jabber defense, let’s talk about Zanka! In my opinion, that time he crawled into a well was absolutely a suicide attempt. You don’t crawl into a well for three days without food and water, monologue about how you should “drop dead,” and then not have it treated like the suicide attempt it is. It’s like people ignoring Yuutas attempt in jjk all over again💔. But that’s beyond gachiakuta, so back to Zanka. I just mean to get at the fact Zanka is suicidal—not actively since the well thing, to my knowledge, but he’s not shy to dialogue and thought bubbles where he goes “I need to die.” Reactive suicidality anyone? Yeah, anyways. You guys are plenty media literate but the illiterate ones float to the top like bugs in my water. It’s really unappetizing. This was meant to be a fandom analysis but secretly I’m just defending Jabber and spouting my fandom gospel, ignore my insanity if it was embarrassing.

Closing

I had heard about tshd from a friend back in 2023 when we were having a discussion about manga we had both been reading at the time, and it was specifically introduced to me as a horror. Cut to me reading the manga, and it read as like, heavily queer to me, so later on I had been browsing fandom stuff related to it and saw someone complaining about how when the series first came out it was tagged as a bl but the bl tag had later been removed entirely without explanation. I was like “dammit. queerbaited again” and decided to enjoy tshd the way I enjoy fullmetal; consuming the media and not interacting with the associated community—because of this stance I never actually went ahead and fact checked that one post I saw ages ago.

tldr; was the queerbaiting real and we all just collectively decided to ignore it?? am I stupid?

(I know that queer themes are genuinely present(therefore it’s not so much as queerbaiting), but with the release of the anime I’m seeing the “is tshd a bl” thing getting all stirred up with new people trying to get into it)